Davos 2008: The black list

12:01AM GMT 20 Jan 2008

There is no greater humiliation for the great and good than being dropped from the Davos guest list, says Edmund Conway

It is the most sought-after invitation of the year for politicians and businessmen alike. So spare a thought for the poor souls who will this year suffer the indignity of staying at home or - worse still - find themselves in another skiing resort.

Whether through misfortune, misadventure or pure misery, there will be some notable absentees this year. A minute's silence, then, for the Davos rejects.

CHUCK PRINCE, former chairman and chief executive of Citigroup

It wouldn't do to invite the biggest cheerleader for the global credit bubble, would it? The former boss of Citigroup was for years a regular fixture on the Davos circuit, exuding an unflappable confidence even last year, when the cries of warning about an imminent crisis in financial markets were becoming significantly louder.

Prince is not the only leading banker to have fallen dramatically from grace in the past six months. Perhaps he could club together with Stan O'Neal, formerly of Merrill Lynch, and Jimmy Cayne, the embattled head of Bear Stearns, for a rival conference on financial hubris. It could be called "Bouncing Back".

LORD BROWNE, former chief executive of BP

This is not the first Davos the former BP chief has missed. Despite his billing last year as one of the conference's co-chairmen, he was mysteriously absent. The official reason was a bout of flu, though he had coincidentally suffered the indignity of announcing his impending departure from the company just weeks earlier.

This time around the man perennially proclaimed as Britain's greatest businessman will again be notable by his absence. Rumour has it that Tony Hayward, Browne's successor, is planning to keep a low profile, so it might be up to another ambitious chief executive to assume the WEF's co-chairman's mantle.

HM TREASURY

For the first time in years, the Chancellor will not be at the World Economic Forum - unlike most of his international counterparts. Treasury spokesmen insist that Alistair Darling has far more important things to attend to, although some mutter that Britain's absence is due less to scheduling problems than to embarrassment over Northern Rock.

The PR challenge of describing to Davos Man (mantra: "failure is not an option") how Britain suffered the first run on a major bank since Victorian times will instead be left in the shaky hands of the Prime Minister. Himself an old Davos hand, Gordon Brown is flying in and out on Friday - presumably before Hank Paulson, the US Treasury Secretary, pins him down for an explanation.

PAUL WOLFOWITZ, former president of the World Bank

Another of the mighty who has fallen over the past year, the former World Bank chief was one of the big names on the roster in 2007, hobnobbing with Bono and Blair on Africa. The hereafter has been less blissful.

Following a scandal involving him and his girlfriend, who also worked for the Bank and enjoyed a mysteriously rapid (and lucrative) ascent to its top ranks, he resigned from the aid giant in the summer.

However, the NGOs that now crowd Davos need not fear - his replacement, Robert Zoellick, will be along to talk aid and suffer harassment. Wolfowitz's Washington stablemate, Rodrigo de Rato of the International Monetary Fund, will also be a no-show, having been replaced by Dominique Strauss-Kahn last year.